Catching Fire
by Poolbreeze
Summary: Katniss and Peeta have arrived back home only to discover that what they thought would be the last time the games to intervine in their lives is actually not. They head to the Victor Tour and everything goes wrong. The night of the reading of the cards well let's just say Katniss and Peeta have a very hard future ahead. Prequel of my book the Mockingjay.


I stretch as I look out across the forest. I scan the area looking as though I know what I'm doing but inside I'm lost. Completely lost, I sigh and lean against a tree.

The games made me lost I still am broken beyond repair. That's what Haymitch tells Peeta and I we can only grow to live with it. We will never truly heal. I hear rustling behind me and turn sharply pulling back an arrow and am about to let it fly when I see Gale looking at me. I lower my bow blushing slightly. In my mind for a second I was back in the arena being hunted by Cato.

Gale had taken a step back raising his hands before brushing it off as though it was nothing "saw a couple of turkeys on the way here. Crossed right in front of me as though I wasn't here."

I give him a soft, forced smile "how rude of them."

"That's what happens when you spend six days in the mines. These birds start to think they own these woods," he says.

I chuckle softly but it's fake.

He frowns slightly "when's the tour leave?"

"Six," I say.

He nods "well let's go then."

I follow him through the trees silently. Our hunters tread not making a sound. I spot wild turkeys and swat down in a crack between two trees.

I position my arrow and get ready to fire when my mind races back to the arena a image of Marvel the male tribute from two. I let my arrow fly, it doesn't hit, I start to shake and scream pressing against the truck of the tree. Gale grabs my shoulders.

"Hey, hey," he says calmly.

He wasn't this calm when this happened a week after I got back from the games and my flashbacks were worst then. It'd take hours and hours to calm me down. Peeta could do it better and Gale had grown to taking me to Peeta during those flashbacks.

I breath in and out deeply. Gale takes my hand and helps me down the trail to the fence and under he walks to the bakery.

He knocks on the back door and only waits a moment before Peeta appears. Peeta takes my hands without a word.

"Hey what happened?" he asks.

"I was shooting down a turkey and then Marvel was there," I cry my voice shaking.

He brushes some stray hairs out of my eyes and kisses my forehead "you're safe. You are right here. With me and Gale."

I press myself against his chest and he hugs me tightly. I breathe slowly in and out as he rubs my back. I kiss his lips blushing slightly.

I turn to Gale who stand quietly frowning slightly "sorry."

Gale nods "it's okay."

Peeta looks at me "I am sorry Katniss I like spend the rest of the day with you normally but I have this order I have to get done."

I nod "it's fine see you at Haymitch's before the tour?"

"Definitely," he says kissing me lightly on the lips before going.

I turn back to Gale "should we go back out?" My head hurts, I feel dizzy and nervous this seems to show on my face.

"No let's go get something to eat," he suggests.

I nod and follow him. I want to go over to his house and drop off the couple turkeys we did catch but he doesn't agree. I enjoy spending time with Gale's mother Hazelle. I like Hazelle. Respect her. The explosion that killed my father took out her husband as well, leaving her with three boys and a baby due any day. Less than a week after she gave birth, she was out hunting the streets for work. The mines weren't an option with a baby to look after, but she managed to get laundry from some of the merchants in town. I've given to giving them our own and paying them very well for it. At fourteen, Gale, the eldest of the kids, became the main supporter of the family. He was already signed up for tesserae, which entitled them to a meager supply of grain and oil for exchange for his entering his name extra times into the reaping. The reaping was the drawing to become a tribute. On top of that even back then he was an excellent trapper. But it wasn't enough to keep a family of five without Hazelle working her fingers to the bone on that washboard. They are determined that the other younger boy twelve year old, Rory, ten year old Vick and four year old Posy never sign up for treserras.

We walk to the hob, where Gale and I traditionally have done our trading. Years ago it was a warehouse to store coal, but when it fell into disuse, it became a meeting place for illegal traders and the blossomed into a full-time black market. When we walk through the stalls and stop at Greasy Sale's we boast ourselves up on a stool. We both grab a bowl of her dog soup and dig in. Gale is silent for most of it. I don't feel the need to talk.

Ripper the winery on the district walks by.

"Oh Ripper! I need two bottles of your white wine," I say.

Ripper narrows his eyes at me "why girly?"

"My mother uses it for a few remedies," I lie.

The truth is Haymitch needs it. A couple weeks ago Ripper ran out of the stuff and Haymitch had to go without. For Peeta and I who live across and beside him found this unpleasant. Peeta and I have taken to stocking up incase it ever happens again.

Ripper hands it over and I hand him the money "keep the change."

I tend to do this, the Capitol doesn't control what I do with my winnings so what if I give a couple dollars extra to the other people.

Gale looks at me questionably.

"It's for Haymitch," I say.

Gale nods "I will never understand why you care about him."

"Hard not to," I say "he saved my life in the arena."

"Yeah and help you risk your own for Peeta's," he says.

"Ah that feast was fun. I can't remember the last time I felt like that. Oh yeah when I was being chased by the fire," I say.

We break out laughing.

I check my watch "better start heading home."

Gale nods "see you in a couple of weeks."

I nod "you bet!"

I get to my feet grab the bottles of liquor and walk up to Haymitch's front door. I bang on it a couple of times before walking in. The liquor fumes cling to every corner of the house. I walk to the kitchen and throw open a window. I breath deeply before turning to the lump that waits me at the table.

Passed out a bottle in one hand the other hanging off the table he's drooling. I nudge him.

"Haymitch tour day train leaves in two hours," I say.

He gives a slight cough before shifting slightly and going back to sleep. I turn on the kettle and start coffee before turning back to the task of waking my drunk mentor up. I shake him again but he's dead to the world.

I take a glass that sits on the table and splash it down his back and on his head. I jump back as he roaring slashes the air with his knife I had forgotten he sleeps with. He looks at me in bewilderment. He starts towards me, I grab his collar.

"You wanted me to wake you and if you wanted to be babied you should have asked Peeta."

Haymitch points the knife at me it's then that we hear the door open and Peeta walks in.

"Ask me what?" he asks startled at see us like this.

"To wake me without giving me pneumonia," Haymitch says and turns to look up at me "you are a strangely dislikable person."

I take out the two white wine bottles and place them on the table.

He stops seeing them "but you do have your perches."

Peeta snorts as he cuts Haymitch a piece of bread and hands it to Haymitch.

"Want some bread Katniss?" he asks softly.

"Just a small piece I ate at the hob," I say.

He nods and passes me a piece. I sit down and nibble on it. Peeta sits beside me.

"Did you and Gale go back out hunting after coming to see me?" he asks.

I shake my head "no...I couldn't think properly out there with the tour and everything happening so we just grabbed lunch."

Peeta looks at me "the tour it can't be any harder than winning the games."

I stare at him for a couple minutes before snorting "it'll be just as hard. It's like killing them all again. Half of them I don't even know their names. I just know they had to die to let us live."

Peeta looks at me "I can do most of the talking if you want."

"Could you?" I ask "I have a feeling I…"

Peeta squeezes my hand "of course I will."

"Thank you," I mutter.

Peeta kisses my forehead. I turn away from him and stare out the window. Three weeks that's it until I'm back here then it's just the Quell in nine months. Where I will have to mentor children to be killed. I half understand how come Haymitch drinks so much.

"Haymitch do you have any idea what we will be doing for the Quell?" I ask.

"I don't get told until you do," he says.

I sigh "probably triple the tributes or something."

Peeta looks at me. He can't mentor them himself we have to do it together he knows this will be hard for me.

"Let's worry about one thing at a time," he says.

I nod "alright."

I get to my feet "well Cinna will be here soon better go."

I open the door and am meet with a blast of cold air. The snow has come finally and is drifting slowly down from the sky. I walk across to my house and kick my shoes off before going in. My mother has been cleaning all day and it won't do to make a mess.

"How was your walk dear?" asks my mother.

"Walk….?" I trail of when I see a man from the Capitol behind her "oh really good Peeta showed me these really beautiful spots to pick flowers in the spring." I say hoping it will make up for my question.

The man steps forward "this way, please, Miss Everdeen."

He gestures down the hallway. It's weird to be ushered around your own home, but I know better than to comment on it.

As I go, I give my mother a reassuring smile over my shoulder "probably more instructions for the tour."

They've been sending me all sorts of stuff about my itinerary and what protocol will be observed in each district. But as I walk towards the door of the study, a door I have never even seen close until this moment, I can feel my mind race. _Who is here? What do the want? Why is my mother so pale?_

"Go right in," says the Capitol man, who has followed me down the hallway.

I twist the polished brass knob and step inside. My nose registers the conflicting scents of roses and blood. A small, white-haired man who seems vaguely familiar is watching something on a TV. I stare at the back of the screen. He smiles brightly at me and turns the screen to face me.

I let out a quiet gasp, it's the end of the games when I held out the berries.

 **Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I am really excited to write this book so yeah hope you enjoy!**


End file.
